Matthew Gilbert
Boston Globe
At 84 minutes, and narrated by seven of the students, the film is an often touching, sometimes dull, and always well-intentioned portrait of struggling kids and committed teachers.
Apr 18, 2014
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Matt Zoller Seitz
New York Magazine/Vulture
The movie feels too long, padded even, but its relaxed vibe and non-cloying tone are a tonic.
Apr 16, 2014
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Ed Bark
Uncle Barky
[It] becomes an instructive and affecting film, although not a true Burns classic. Still, it's nice to him as a fly on the wall in a contemporary setting, with cameras capturing the here and now rather than recycling telling images from long times ago.
Rated: B+
Apr 16, 2014
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Kam Williams
Baret News
A current-day, Ken Burns PBS production every bit as moving as any of his nostalgic classics!
Rated: 4/4
Apr 14, 2014
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Audience Member
One star for effort. Honestly, this film is awfully boring. On a technical aspect, Ken Burns did a horrendous job. The lighting is awful in almost every scene. Scenes are over and underexposed with little consistency. The white balance is off in almost every scene, theres even a scene where it's on auto white balance and you can see the shift of colors. The cameras are never on tripods so prepare yourself for a headache after 90 minutes of handheld motions.
In terms of story, the film tries to document a large amount of students attempting to learn the Gettysburg Address. As a viewer you don't get enough time to know all the students and are confused about who is who. When the film ends you don't even care who is who. With so much time focused on the address you begin to question if the school even teaches the students anything besides the Address. There is so much garbage footage and unrelated b-roll thrown in to ease the pain of hearing the address that you almost don't care about it. This film barely covers the civil war, lincoln and fails to mention and describe what the address means such as understanding what the word "consecrate" means instead of concentrate.
It's dull crap like this that gives PBS a bad name. Ken Burns could have at least used some more upbeat music. It feels like these kids are going to their grave with the sadness and pain of going through this experience of learning this speech. As a filmmaker I'm not impressed and I wouldn't advise anyone to ever watch this.
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
02/05/23
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